


Milk

by iarrannme



Series: Winter Fables [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Existential Crisis, Gen, Humor, Milk, Robots, Tragedy, Tragedy/Comedy, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2021-01-31 12:29:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21446233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iarrannme/pseuds/iarrannme
Summary: In which the Winter Soldier has an existential crisis at Alexander Pierce’s kitchen table, involving milk, and possibly robots.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Alexander Pierce, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Winter Fables [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1546102
Comments: 9
Kudos: 51
Collections: Bizarre Stories and Unexpected Tangents, Bucky, Bucky Barnes, Bucky Barnes: Remember Who You Are, Bucky and or winter soldier centric





	Milk

**Author's Note:**

> Beta by [SpideyFics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpideyFics/pseuds/SpideyFics) \- check out her work.

The man his handlers have told him to obey turns back from dismissing the woman who was neither threat nor mission and therefore irrelevant. “Want some milk?”

“Milk” is not part of his mission. His handlers do not give him milk.

It is not an order, so he does not have to follow it. (Unless he is being ordered to want milk? But the man’s intonation and body language do not fit the parameters of an order.) He is not sure why he is being asked whether he wants something or what it would mean to say yes or no.

Is this a test? Of course: everything is a test. Is the man making sure he won't accept unscheduled refueling from a possibly compromised container? Why waste time on something so elementary?

Is “want some milk?” a passcode his handlers neglected to give him? Or deliberately omitted? He has had handlers attempt to use him in faction fights before. When his handlers work at cross purposes, then his performance does not satisfy any of them, and the consequences are detrimental to his smooth functioning. (He does not permit himself to think of it in any other terms. If he acts on rage, the consequences will be … detrimental to his smooth functioning.)

Is it a new trigger phrase? He does not feel any different. Perhaps one with a delayed result?

Perhaps it _is_ a trigger phrase, but not for him. He does not need to glance around or tense his muscles; he is already prepared for assault from any quarter. It would have to be robots: he had already determined that the woman was the only human in the apartment before the man arrived. There are no others waiting in closets or up the chimney or within the walls to attack him. It will be robots, then.

The man pours milk into a glass.

No robots burst out of secret compartments. Their lasers and guns and bombs fail to wreak havoc in the kitchen. He does not have to spring from the table, use the kitchen island for cover, and shatter the windows in his escape. (It does not occur to him to include slitting the man’s throat in his plans. The man is Authority. The Asset does not touch Authority unless Authority orders it.)

He stares at the man.

“Our timetable has moved,” says the man. “Our window is limited.”

Apparently he passed the test. Or the robots malfunctioned and providing mission-relevant information is the man’s back-up plan. He does not allow himself to relax.

The man drinks the milk. The man says, “I want confirmed death in ten hours.”

_Want_. This is another test. On the surface, it appears to be an irrelevant utterance. But this time, the intonation means “order.” The man means, “Kill the targets within ten hours.”

He is not often in a position to give orders himself. When he is, he does not say “I want.” He says, “Do this.” He does not say, “if you want to live.” They will make their own deductions on that score, or not. It is of no consequence to him; his orders always cover either contingency.

What does he want? He wants to know the answer to the man’s question. He wants a clear order about milk.

“Oh, Renata,” says the man. “I wish you would have knocked.”

**Author's Note:**

> At first the idea that Pierce accidentally nearly broke the Asset by asking if it wanted milk seemed pretty funny, but the more I wrote it...it's a thin skim of comedy on top of a deep dark pool. Since this is entirely from the Winter Soldier's POV I don't know what Pierce's actual motivations were with that line. I don't trust anything from him that seems to be kindness.
> 
> You may also enjoy [Resistance](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1513685) by varooooom, the only other fic I've seen about this interaction (but less centrally and Bucky's in a better place).


End file.
